He set the bread down because the evidence had finally, barely, begun to say he could.

My whole job, I understood then, was simply to keep adding to that evidence, every ordinary day, for as long as it took — to be, relentlessly and unremarkably, the home that did not vanish.

That is not a dramatic job.

It is the most important one I will ever have.

Chapter 19 — What the Truth Could Not Fix

I want to be honest about the parts of this that did not resolve into anything like a happy ending, because pretending otherwise would dishonor the families who did not get one.

Evelyn’s meticulous archives helped investigators find several other missing children.